Kitten Begging Relentlessly and Becoming Aggressive

[evang]

Hi All,
I'm new to the site, so please bear with me here. About a week ago, a flea-ridden, stray, six-week old cat wandered up to the door of my house. It was starting to get cold at nights here and my roommates and I didn't want to leave him out because he seemed to fragile. We decided to take him in and adopt him, bringing him into the vet, combing and bathing him to get rid of the fleas, and giving him love and attention. We've all had cats at one point or another and are generally observant on the needs and wants of a feline.
Sidney (the kitten) has been getting quite aggressive lately, however. Every time that someone goes into the kitchen, he follows them and yells (yells, not meows) for food. I usually ignore him in order to to reinforce the behavior with any attention at all, and it works some of the time. Whenever someone gets his food out, though, he goes wild. When I say wild, I mean absolutely wild (it resembles a feral cat on the hunt). He begins to scream loudly and claw at the legs of the person who is dishing out the food. He's getting quite violent, and I'm not sure what to do. This and the begging are spiraling out of control and I'm hoping that someone here can help me. It got to the point today where he scratched up my roommate quite badly when she was dishing out his food, and I decided to put him in the bathroom (where he sleeps at night) until he quieted down. He hasn't quieted down yet, and I'm beginning to worry that I did something terribly wrong in attempting to teach him that he can't get food if he claws and bites.
He will also try to get at human food whenever possible. He's starting to get the message of not climbing on the stove because he gets a shpritz of water every time he does, but he'll still try to climb up and grab whatever food he can off of other surfaces. If he gets something and you try to take it away from him, he bites (when I tried to get a piece of cheese pasta he had gotten yesterday, he bit me so hard that I bled quite a bit).
Help! I don't know what to do and it's killing me!

 

[cookietown]

Both mine have done this, Pixie still does but she is still only 9 weeks old.

The yelling for food i have been ignoring, if they try climb me whilst im feeding them she gets put back on the floor and I dont talk to them whilst doing it, Trixie stopped climbing me after a month or so, pixie has stopped climbing already after 3 weeks though she still yells. I would say with the yelling just ignore it, Sidney will learn eventually that it does no good to yell and climb you for food.

The going after human food what i did with Trixie was put her on the floor when she climbed and ignored her when she whined, I'm still waiting for Pixie to grow out of it, though she has stopped whining for my food already she does still try and get at it.

I would say keep doing what you have been, though I dont think you need to put him in the bathroom, just keep reinforcing the fact that he wont get anything out of yelling at you and climbing on you for his food.

I honestly think mine realised that climbing on me slowed the food down.

Hope I have helped you, he should just need some time to learn, how long have you had him?

 

[stephanietx]

Bless you for rescuing this baby and taking him into your home. At this young age, he needs to eat A LOT! If you don't have food down for him 24/7, I'd encourage you to do so. Then, feed him several canned food meals a day. We used to feed Tumbles 4 or 5 small wet food meals daily when he was a wee tot. You also might want to add some KMR (kitten milk replacer) to the wet food for extra nutrition. Also, be sure to feed him kitten food.

 

[yayi]

I agree with Stephanietx. I rescued 5 orphan kittens at one time - all of them still blind and by the time they were as old as yours, it seems that all I did all day was feed the little ones.

And as Stephanie said, kitten food given in the right amount, will not only provide the required nourishment for Sidney but it will also make him less demanding.

 

[ducman69]

Originally Posted by stephanietx

Bless you for rescuing this baby and taking him into your home. At this young age, he needs to eat A LOT! If you don't have food down for him 24/7, I'd encourage you to do so. Then, feed him several canned food meals a day. We used to feed Tumbles 4 or 5 small wet food meals daily when he was a wee tot. You also might want to add some KMR (kitten milk replacer) to the wet food for extra nutrition. Also, be sure to feed him kitten food.

I agree and think the above advice is great, although we had dry food out for Wesley 24x7, and he'd still scream for his wet food when he realized I was preparing it or going near the cupboard where it was stored as he preferred the taste.

He still screams like below when he was a kitten for his wet/treats, its just his personality:

Never so much as a tiny peep from Buttercup, and they both have grown up attached at the hip treated the same, so some cats are just... "special".

 

[mnjulz]

I didn't see in your post what and how much you are feeding this kitten. It sounds like the kitten is not getting enough food. Kittens should be free fed and always have plenty of water.